Northern Lehigh's interior play stops Palmerton

The Bulldogs' three big men dominate inside in the 65-46 win.

Colonial League Boys

January 11, 2006|By Bryan Wald Special To The Morning Call -- Freelance

What Northern Lehigh was missing in its loss to Palmerton in the Slatington Rotary Tournament two weeks ago has returned in a major way.

The Bulldogs were minus big men Ryan Duncan and Andrew Geiger in the previous meeting between the Colonial League West rivals, and a lack of a consistent post presence cost Northern Lehigh.

But Tuesday night at Palmerton High, Northern Lehigh forward Patrick Wanamaker teamed with Duncan and Geiger to dominate the paint in the Bulldogs' 65-46 thrashing of the Blue Bombers.

"Two of our big guys had gotten hurt at the same time," Bulldogs coach Rich Oertner said. "That was tough because we're not that big of a school to just have other guys to bring in.

"[Tonight] we knew with our big buys back, we'd have two big guys to their one. Initially, our game was to get the ball inside. We weren't even thinking about the 3-ball, unless it was a kick-out. We're pretty hard to defend inside."

Wanamaker and Duncan gave the Blue Bombers fits underneath the basket all game long.

Wanamaker (10 points, 11 rebounds) collected four of his five offensive rebounds in the second quarter when Northern Lehigh began to pull away.

"It's nice to have all three of us big guys back at full strength," Wanamaker said. "We were hoping we could get things going inside tonight and we were able to do that."

The Bulldogs (9-5, 6-3) held Palmerton to just 7-of-22 shooting in the first half and took a 30-15 advantage into halftime.

Northern Lehigh's punishing play on the interior in the first half opened up its perimeter game in the second half.

The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 20 with a 3-pointer by Brian Ruth (11 points) that made it 37-17 with six minutes to play in the third quarter. And Ruth finally slammed the door on Palmerton with breakaway layup at the end of the third that put Northern Lehigh up 48-23.

Bulldogs sophomore guard Jacob Waylen benefited most from the open space outside the elbows, dropping 11 of his game-high 19 points in the second half.

"Every time the big guys get the ball down low and start scoring, the outside opens up because the defense has to double down," Waylen said. "Then we're able to hit the outside shots."

Waylen added that the victory was important for the Bulldogs to establish themselves as a league power.

"We want to prove ourselves in the Colonial League," he said. "We think we're one of the best teams in our division. That's why we stuck with Catty and that's why we had to beat Palmerton tonight."

The Blue Bombers, meanwhile, fell to 6-6 overall and 4-4 in league.

Palmerton coach Brian Minnich said he knew what his team was going to get from Northern Lehigh this time around, and that his team's sluggish performance was not acceptable.

"We knew Northern Lehigh was going to come in here playing hard because we beat them earlier this year," he said. "We weren't up to the task, physically or mentally. They got up on us early and we just couldn't come back."

Junior Jon Wells led Palmerton with 11 points.

As for Northern Lehigh, Oertner hopes his team is back to the level where it needs to be to maintain success.

"We're almost back to where we were before the big guys got hurt," he said. "I'm hoping by Friday, when we go to Southern Lehigh, we're where we need to be. If we play like we did tonight, I think we'll be in good shape."